Gladstone Court Museum

One of the "Streets" in the
Gladstone Court Museum

The Gladstone Court Museum has closed and
been replaced by the superb Biggar &
Upper Clydesdale Museum, which opened in Biggar in the summer of 2015. This
page remains as it was when the museum was open, to allow a glimpse of what was
on offer here.

The Gladstone Court Museum is one of the most fascinating
small museums you are likely to find anywhere. An absolute treasure trove drawn
from Biggar's past, it allows visitors
to wander through a series of interconnected "streets" and explore the many
old shops, offices, workshops and other premises which these give access
to.

The museum stands on the north side of North Back Street. This is
the road that runs parallel to Biggar's High
Street and Market Place and, as the name implies, just to the north of it. It
can be accessed through a number of narrow wynds or alleys that link North Back
Street to the Market Place; and which, incidentally, say much about how parts
of Biggar's medieval street plan still
remain.

Gladstone Court Museum started life as a private venture in 1964
and opened its doors to the public in 1968. The opening was performed by the
poet Hugh MacDiarmid, a
resident of Biggar from 1951 until his death
in 1978. The connection is remembered in the naming of nearby MacDiarmid Court.
The building housing the museum started life as a coach works before becoming a
mission hall. When work began to convert the building into a museum it was
being used as an ironmonger's fireplace showroom.

The museum has been carefully designed to reward exploration. Within
a necessarily limited space, the "streets" that run through the museum are more
narrow wynds, complete with a Victorian post box, antique street furniture,
street signs and adverts. Two main streets running front to back are linked by
a number of cross streets. The fascination comes partly from the enclosed
street environment, but for many the real magic starts when you begin to
explore what lies behind the many front doors leading off the streets.

Beyond an arch which originally came from Ingraston House lies
Biggar's old telephone exchange, which was
moved here in its entirety when it was replaced by a new exchange in 1973.
Nearby is the village library, now home to many of the books which once resided
in the Robertson village library. Here, too, you find a well used armchair
which one belonged to Hugh
MacDiarmid.

Workshops on view include that of Andrew Reid, watch and clockmaker,
who was one of half a dozen to have plied their trade in
Biggar in the 1800s. The cobbler's workshop
is a partial reconstruction of the home of John Brown, built in 1653 and
re-erected here after it was demolished, then fitted out with items from a
number of cobblers' workshops. John Gladstone, the ironmonger, started business
in Biggar in 1864 and many of the fittings
of his business are now housed in the museum. Elsewhere you will find a
dressmakers, a joiner's workshop, and an Albion Dog Cart Car, made in
Biggar in 1899.

On the retail side the museum is home to a china shop, a grocers, a
printer and stationer, and a druggist. Other premises within the museum are
home to a bank, whose interior is an amalgam of the branches of four different
banks who once had a presence in Biggar.
There is also a schoolroom containing items from a number of schools and Sunday
schools in and around the town. Standing on a street corner is a wooden booth
which houses the Metropolitan Photographic Art Studio.

What makes the Gladstone Court Museum so wonderful and unique is the
way so much of what you find within it looks and feels so real: because so much
of it is real. Here you find entire little chunks of
Biggar's history swept up, preserved and
lovingly presented for later generations to enjoy.